Sixteen years ago, as a longtime real estate agent in Naperville, Joanne Sebby recognized an opportunity to build a family business. Clients were regularly asking her for a referral for a reliable moving service and she couldn’t think of one. So she created her own.

Today, Sebby’s Two Men and a Truck franchise runs 20 trucks and has more than 50 employees serving Chicago’s Western Suburbs, including Hinsdale.

Key to the success of the family-run business—Sebby’s three adult children are all involved in management—is hiring the right people who interact with sometimes nervous clients on a day-to-day basis.

“All of our employees are permanent and we conduct background checks and drug tests,” Sebby says. “We’re very careful about the people we hire and we like to keep them for a long time. We can teach you how to be a mover, but we like to hire employees with good customer service skills who are people persons.”

Sebby cites as an example a customer who commented that she expected to be really stressed out the day of her move but ended up having a great day, in part due to the movers’ keen sense of humor.

In addition to providing moving services for anyone moving locally or within the state of Illinois, Two Men and a Truck works with realtors and interior designers who need to move and store furniture for staging and remodeling houses, and provides packing and unpacking services. The company maintains good relationships with local storage facilities.

Lansing-based Two Men and a Truck has more than 380 franchises in America and internationally. In addition to providing marketing and other support, the company encourages franchisees to get involved in their local communities. Sebby’s franchise has done just that.

As part of its Movers for Moms effort, each May her employees collect donated items and deliver them to the Family Shelter Resale Shop in Westmont, which supports Family Shelter Service, a social service organization based in Wheaton.

In the fall, her franchise operates Movers for Mutts, which collects pet supplies donated at libraries, Petland stores, and other locations and delivers them to the Hinsdale Humane Society. It also supports Project C.U.R.E., an organizations that collects used hospital equipment from hospitals in the U. S. for distribution to needy hospitals around the globe.

All of these outreach efforts, along with its membership in the Hinsdale Chamber of Commerce, give Two Men and a Truck the type of tight connections in Hinsdale and the surrounding area that can only happen with strong community investment. As one of the first franchises in Illinois, it maintains a referral rate of 97 percent and constantly receives superior ratings from customers.

Two Men and a Truck’s pricing is competitive with other moving services while offering customers the comfort of knowing they’re working with a local, family-owned business that provides quality service in a friendly, professional manner. With high-end homes a specialty, they look forward to expertly serving the Hinsdale community.

“We are an excellent value for the services we provide,” Sebby says.

Two Men and a Truck is located at 2727 Curtiss Street in Downers Grove, 630-395-9626, twomenandatruck.com.